Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club Under Siege By King County

Well-Known Member

I am really upset by the fact that the new rifle range I joined is now under siege and faces being shut down by King County. This range is the only I have found in the Puget Sound, that is still accepting new members which has met all my expectations. That is, they do not have all the endless BS restrictions that most Seattle area ranges have. I need to practice certain disciplines such as draw-shoot and 3 gun style training, double tapping, etc and every other range in Seattle area requires you do both pistol and rifle shooting only from bench, no draw shoot, no double tapping/rapid fire and most also have round limits in your magazines/firearms. Needless to say, I was very happy to find a range like Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club.

Now, due to some Bullcrap construction projects on some structure on a hiking trail on the other side of the hill from the range, the county is fighting to shut down the Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club as they claim the club is a threat to hikers. They claim construction workers were having to dodge bullets or were witnessing bullets flying by them during the construction project they were working on. Now, King County ordered the club to shut down during for most of the week while they work on this bogus construction project that may go on for months or years. However, I can see this is the beginning of the end for the club, potentially. If King County has deemed the range unsafe, they will most likely come after the range to perform a permanent shutdown in the future. The testimony of these so-called construction workers and the application of false evidence will probably used as grounds to shut down the range. If nothing more, the construction project will keep the range out of operation for a long time. But, if the workers are claiming the range is unsafe, then the claims will most likely be utilized by the notoriously anti-gun politicians in the county to shut the range down on the grounds of a "public safety hazard".

Now, the range has operated for years without one single complaint. The owner Weyerhauser also is on great terms with the range and has supported its operation. One of the members of the range decided to challenge King County's theory of the danger of the range. The person went to the construction site on the weekend during the busiest hours of the range and recorded the entire area with a video camera. If the bullets were to make it over the hill, as the workers claim, there would definitely be activity at the hour and day that this member decided to surveillence the area. So, the person spent a couple hours recording the area during the busiest range hours. There was not a single bullet to enter the vicinity he was in. After a couple hours and video taping the entire area, he could prove that no rounds were entering the area. Also, after decades of operation, there has never been one complaint, nor a single bullet found in the non-restricted areas on the other side of the range where the hikers are present.

I guess it is no surprise that Seattle, the main city of King County is probably one of the most anti-gun cities in the country. King Country, overall, I would think is gun friendly, but the imported anti-gun fascist leaders who moved in from other less enlightened parts of the country and world are now working virulently to eradicate guns, the 2nd Amendment or at least make life a living hell for gun owners.

This entire construction project and the claims of the range being dangerous seems to be a devious step to trying to shut down the Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club. If construction workers are claiming their lives are in danger from the club, I can only imagine the next step would be King County working on shutting down the club permanently. I also could picture them trying to strong-arm Weyerhauser into shutting the club down, despite the fact the club has never committed any violations and never faced any fines. It is heartbreaking to see one of the only good clubs left in the Puget Sound that still has open memberships is now going to have to fight the county tooth and nail to stay open. As you know, King County will use our tax money to fight what they consider the "evil" gun club. If King County had its way, there would be no guns or clubs, despite the high rate of gun ownership in the county outside the fascist city/state called Seattle.

We have already lost another good range in Puget Sound, Kitsap Rifle & Gun Club. I am not sure if it ever re-opened, but I heard Kitsap county shut down the club, as all the people who built their new homes around the club, demanded it be shut down, despite the club being there before the presence of these homes.

I am just making people in the Puget Sound aware of the news about Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club. It is an NRA supported club and they hope the NRA will help pay for the legal counsel. I can see it does look like the club is going to go to court with King County, but they are going up against a very powerful and diabolic entity. I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts about the situation.

If they shut down Snoqualmie Valley or restrict its usage, this will be a major loss for people in the Puget Sound and a step towards the end of people's right to shoot outdoors in one of the most beautiful regions in the country. We will be stuck shooting at overcrowded, overpriced, toxic and unsafe indoor ranges. I, myself , hate shooting at them.. Many of these ranges here won't even let you load more than 1 round at a time and are increasingly imposing more restrictions.

I, myself, now will have to go drive hours to find a place to do pistol shooting and have even considered joining Wenatchee Gun club, two hours up the mountain. There are a lot of shooting spots in the mountains, but many get closed down, trashed and are full of sketch-balls and not the safest places to shoot anymore. It's ashame a great club like Snoqualmie Valley is under threat. I would advocate that people can come together and try to support the club. I'm not sure what the best steps to be taken are to help the club in this dilemma.

Bronze SupporterBronze Supporter2017 Volunteer

That's a bummer. The assault on the rights of gun owners is increasing at a rapid pace. The only hope to stop this is to get the anti-gun politicians out of office at all levels, state, local, county. There is a full-on assault that won't end until they've shut us all down. Just looking at the story of the last gun shop in San Francisco being forced out of business is really a wake-up call.

I wonder how much more lawful gun owners are going to take before they really get pissed?

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